I was born and grew up in Lanarkshire, Scotland. I received an undergraduate degree in geography from the University of Glasgow (1991), an M.A. from Miami University, Ohio (1993), and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky (1998). I taught in Geography at Texas A&M University (1997-1998), Ohio University (1998-1999), and Ohio State University (1999-2003) before moving to Simon Fraser University in 2003.

My broad research interests focus on urban policy mobilities, the relationships between urbanization and globalization, urban drug policy, urban development, and urban politics, specifically the spatial practices and political strategies of groups involved in producing urban policies. My three related research foci are:

Geographies of Drug Policy: My main empirical research interest is in geographies of drug policy, with a particular interest in global activism directed at promoting harm reduction and changing many existing drug policies. I am interested in talking to prospective graduate students about working with me in this area. For more information, see here.

Urban Policy Mobilities: My primary conceptual interest is in how urban policy actors (broadly defined to include politicians, policy professionals, consultants, and activists, among others) interact globally as they produce, disseminate, and adopt policies. Conceptualizing these 'policy mobilities' entails an investigation of the role of expertise, spatial imaginaries, and numerous apparently mundane practices, such as calculation and communication, in shaping global circuits of policy knowledge. It is also concerned with the varied and often micro-scale spatialities in and through which policies travel – including conference interactions, fact-finding visits, and email communications. Finally, it focuses on the urban political implications of policy transfer, focusing on how policy models are framed, deployed, and struggled over in cities. My work on drug policy is the main lens through which I try to conceptualize policy mobilities, although I have also written some papers on urban planning, design, and development from this perspective.

A Good Place to Live?: This is a third area of interest and, at the moment, I think of it particularly in terms of urban drug policy. I'm interested in talking to prospective students who are focused on links between drug policy and quality of life in cities (again, see here). I am less interested in advising students who come at the issue of 'a good place to live' from other angles. Guiding questions in this area include: What constitutes a city, or an urban neighborhood, as ‘a good place to live’ in contemporary urban policy discourse and in the popular imagination? Which experts, theories, and ‘best practice’ models are most influential in shaping these definitions and how have they become so powerful? How do they draw upon and invoke real and imagined social spaces (from bike paths and coffee shops to affordable housing and health care facilities)? How are these discourses deployed, challenged, and struggled over in specific urban neighborhoods and how do they relate to questions of gentrification, citizenship, inequality, social justice etc.? Quality of life where, for whom, and for how long?

Publications

My current publishing activities involve a number of related projects. I am involved in two ongoing book projects. One is Cities & Social Change, co-edited with Ronan Paddison (University of Glasgow), forthcoming with Sage. The other is Urban Geography: A Critical Introduction, co-authored with Andrew Jonas (University of Hull) and Mary Thomas (Ohio State University), under contract at Blackwell. I am also involved in a SSHRC-funded Research Creations project (intended to combine research and artistic creation), led by Henry Tsang and Glen Lowry (Emily Carr University of Art and Design). The project explores an emergent transnational urban geography constituted by the movement of ideas and people between Vancouver and Dubai, specifically the mirroring of Vancouver's downtown waterfront in Emaar's Dubai Marina development.

Book

2011. McCann, E. & Ward, K. eds. Mobile urbanism: Cities & policy-making in the global age. (Minnesota).

• Contributors: Allan Cochrane (preface); Eugene McCann & Kevin Ward (introduction); Doreen Massey; Jennifer Robinson; Jamie Peck; Kevin Ward; Eugene McCann; Roger Keil & Harris Ali; Donald McNeill; Kevin Ward & Eugene McCann (conclusion).

Journal Special Editions/Sections

2006. Ward, K. & McCann, E.J. eds. “The New Path to a New City”? Urban Politics, Social Movements and the Legacies of Manuel Castells’ The City and the Grassroots. Special Debates and Developments Section of The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol.30 No.1 pp. 189-223.

• Contributors: Kevin Ward & Eugene McCann (introduction); Robert Lake; Margit Mayer; Byron Miller; Lynn Staeheli; Ida Susser; Manuel Castells.

2003. Martin, D., McCann, E., & Purcell, M. Contemporary Geographical Perspectives on Urban Politics and Policy. Special issue of the Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol.25 No.2.

• Contributors: Deborah Martin, Eugene McCann, and Mark Purcell (introduction); David Wilson and Jared Wouters; Sarah Elwood and Helga Leitner; Eugene McCann; Julie-Ann Boudreau; Pauline McGuirk; Ian Deas and Benito Giardano.

Selected papers (The downloadable CV contains a full list)

In Press. McCann, E. Policy boosterism, policy mobilities, & the extrospective city. Urban Geography. [pdf]

In Press. Temenos, C. & E. McCann. The local politics of policy mobility: Learning, persuasion, & the production of a municipal sustainability fix. Environment & Planning A. [pdf]

In Press. McCann, E. & K Ward. Assembling urbanism: Following policies & 'studying through' the sites & situations of policy-making. Environment & Planning A. [pdf]

2011. McCann, E. Veritable inventions: Cities, policies, & assemblage. Area. [pdf]

2011. Lowry, G. & McCann, E. Asia in the mix: Urban form and global mobilities – Hong Kong, Vancouver, Dubai. In Aihwa Ong and Ananya Roy eds. Worlding Cities: Asian Experiments and the Art of Being Global (Blackwell). [pdf]

2011. McCann, E. Points of reference: Knowledge of elsewhere in the politics of urban drug policy. In McCann, EJ and Ward, K eds. Assembling Urbanism: Mobilizing Knowledge & Shaping Cities in a Global Context. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [pdf]

2011. McCann, E. Urban policy mobilities and global circuits of knowledge: Toward a research agenda. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 101, No. 1, pp. 107-130. [pdf]

2010. Catungal, J.P.C. & McCann, E. Governing sexuality & park space: Acts of regulation in Vancouver, BC. Social & Cultural Geography. Vol.11 No.1, pp.75-94. [pdf]

2010. McCann, E. & Ward, K. Relationality / territoriality: Toward a conceptualization of cities in the world. Geoforum. Vol. 41 No.2, pp.175-184. [pdf]

2008. Proudfoot, J. & McCann, E. At Street-Level: Bureaucratic Practice in the Management of Urban Neighborhood Change. Urban Geography. Vol. 29 No.4, pp.348-370. [pdf]

2008. McCann, E. Expertise, Truth, and Urban Policy Mobilities: Global Circuits of Knowledge in the Development of Vancouver, Canada’s ‘Four Pillar’ Drug Strategy. Environment and Planning A. Vol.40 No.4, pp.885-904. [pdf]

2008. McCann, E. Livable city / unequal city: Imagining Society and Space in an American Boomtown. Interventions Economiques 37 (Peer reviewed online journal Quebec Political Economy Association). [pdf]

2007. McCann, E. Inequality and Politics in the Creative City-Region: Questions of Livability and State Strategy. The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol.31 No.1, pp.188-196. [pdf]

2004. McCann, E. Urban Political Economy Beyond the ‘Global’ City. Urban Studies, Vol.41 No.12 pp.2315-2333. [pdf]

• Reprinted in: Lee, Y.S. and Yeoh, B. eds. 2006. Globalization and the Politics of Forgetting. New York: Routledge, pp.21-39.

2004. McCann, E. ‘Best Places’: Inter-Urban Competition, Quality of Life, and Popular Media Discourse. Urban Studies, Vol.41 No.10 pp.1909-1929. [pdf]

• Revised and updated German translation reprinted in: Belina, B. & Miggelbrink, J. eds. 2009. Hier so, dort anders: Raumbezogene Vergleiche in der Wissenschaft und anderswo. Munster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, pp.132-152.

Awards and Honors

2009. Featured faculty-member for the Faculty of Environment's entry in SFU's 2010 undergraduate Viewbook.

• A publication for prospective undergraduates, giving them an overview of SFU's academic programs.

2008. Simon Fraser University Excellence in Teaching Award.

• An award given to three faculty-members, university-wide, each year, based on anonymous nomination, a chair’s letter, a statistical analysis of at least five years of in-class student evaluations, a statement of teaching philosophy, letters from randomly-selected former students, and a committee evaluation. I was only the second geographer to receive the award in its 26-year history.

2006. Awarded ‘Research Group Guest’ status by the Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers Economic Geography Research Group for the RGS-IBG conference.

2003. Simon Fraser University Endowed Research Fellowship.

• A competitive fellowship, awarded to a small number of new faculty each year. I was one of four Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences faculty-members nominated for the award by the Dean.

2000. Miami University Graduate School Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Teaching

Currently:

Geog. 362W. Geography of Urban Development (writing intensive course).

Geog 441. Cities, Space, & Politics.

Geog 640. Graduate seminar (topic changes each time).

Geog 600. Introduction to Graduate Studies: Professional Development.

Geog 601. Introduction to Graduate Studies: Research Proposal.

Previously:

Geog. 261. Introduction to Urban Geography.

Graduate Advising

Current Advisees

Daniela Aiello (M.A.). Topic: Food & neighbourhood change.

Cristina Temenos (Ph.D.). Topic: Global networks, policy mobilities, & drug policy activism.

Rini Sumartojo (Ph.D., currently ABD) Place attachment, ethnocultural identity, and multiculturalism: Indo-Canadian youth violence in Vancouver. Funded by a SSHRC /Metropolis BC grant. Winner, AAG Ethnic Geography Specialty Group’s Best Ph.D. Proposal award, 2006.

Past Advisees

Stephanie Campbell (Ph.D., 2010) Productive consumption of the 'livable' neighbourhood: The case of Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC.

Nicole Stewart (M.A., 2009) Placing housing policy: Plans, challenges, & advocacy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Funded by a SSHRC graduate fellowship. Current position: Policy & Parnerships Consultant, Affordable Housing Office, City of Toronto, Ontario.

Lynn Saffery (M.A. 2009) The art of citizenship: Myth-making and neighbourhood change. Funded by a SSHRC graduate fellowship. Current position: Design Supervisor, Burnaby Village Museum, Burnaby, BC.

Annemarie Bodaar (Ph.D. 2008, Ohio State University) Cities and the ' Multicultural State': Immigration, multi-ethnic neighborhoods, and the socio-spatial negotiation of policy in the Netherlands. Funded by an NSF doctoral dissertation improvement grant. Current position: Housing Policy Advisor, Department of Urban Development, City of The Hague, The Netherlands.

Cristina Temenos (M.A. 2007). Talking Trash: The Politics of Waste Management in Whistler, British Columbia. Current position: Ph.D. student, Geography, Simon Fraser University.

Jesse Proudfoot (M.A.2006) At street level: Bureaucrats and the regulation of urban space. Funded by a SSHRC graduate fellowship. Winner, AAG Urban Geography Specialty Group’s Best Masters Thesis award, 2007 and the CAG's Starkey-Robinson Award for best graduate thesis, 2008. Current position: Ph.D. candidate, Geography, Simon Fraser University.

Sarah Starkweather (M.A. 2002, Geography and City and Regional Planning, Ohio State University, co-advised with Jack Nasar) Perceptions of Safety and the Rights to Space: Limitations and Strategic Responses. Winner, AAG Qualitative Research Specialty Group Master’s Paper Award, 2003. Subsequently published as: Starkweather, S. 2007. Gender, perceptions of safety and strategic responses among Ohio university students. Gender, Place and Culture 14(3), pp.355-370. Current position: Lecturer, Geography, University of Liverpool.

Rini Sumartojo (M.A. 2001, Ohio State University) Contesting Place: Anti-Gay and Lesbian Hate Crime in Columbus, Ohio. Subsequently published in Colin Flint (ed.) 2003. Spaces of Hate: Geographies of Discrimination and Intolerance in the U.S.A. (Routledge). Current position: Ph.D. candidate, Geography, Simon Fraser University.

Joanna Machin (M.A. 2001, Ohio State University). Beyond the Backyard: The Geo-Strategies of Activist Networks. Current position: Head of Research, Institute for Volunteering Research, London, England.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Marit Rosol (2007-2008) Governing cities through community: The example of the CityPlan Community Visions Program, Vancouver, Canada. Postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (German Academic Exchange Service). Current Position: Assistant Professor, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany (since 2006, after receiving a Ph.D. from Humbolt-Universität zu Berlin, 2006).